The Struggle of Transportation

When you walk around SC’s campus, you’ll notice three main modes of transportation for students: walking, biking, and longboarding. Each of them has their pros and cons, and I thought I’d share some tips and tricks about each.

Walking is, obviously, the easiest, safest option. It’s easy to dodge rogue bikers and longboarders. You don’t have to lock up your bike before class or take your longboard to your seat. There are nice little shortcuts you can take to avoid traffic on the way to class. You can wear any outfit you want. But, walking takes a long time. At least twice as long as biking or longboarding. If it’s hot outside (which it often is) you’ll get a bit more sweaty.

Biking is a fast, reliable way to to get around campus. It’s pretty easy to ride a bike, but a little harder to dodge crazy pedestrians on their phones or longboarders who don’t have skating down yet.. You can carry extra stuff in a basket if you want. You can sleep in for an extra 5 minutes before your 8am (super worth it). Most outfits work with a bike, but it may not be as comfortable as walking if you’re wearing something fancy. But, you do have to lock up your bike wherever you end up, and that can take an extra couple of minutes. You also have to buy a bike and possibly maintain it if you get a flat tire or break a chain and whatnot.

There are even bike lanes

Personally, I use a longboard because it’s the best of both worlds of biking and walking. It’s fast and you don’t have to lock it up, you can just carry it with you wherever you go. It’s especially great to ride around on SC’s campus, because campus is super flat except for a very slight downhill towards the southwest corner (if you live at Parkside, it’s always downhill to go home, but if you live around New North and Pardee, it’s downhill to go to class). The big downside to longboarding is the fact that you have to learn how to ride one, and that can be tough. I am a snowboarder which is pretty similar, but I still took some spills before I got the hang of it. Especially watch out for bricks that stick out and potholes on McClintock. Oh, you it’s a lot harder to wear skirts.